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by alafaye



Series: 2017 December works [86]
Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-24 15:05:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13216335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alafaye/pseuds/alafaye
Summary: M's left a cautionary fairy tale about James Bond that Q failed to properly heed.





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**Author's Note:**

> This is day 31 of the newyearcntdown challenge and the prompt 'winter fairy tales'. Also for day 31 of the '31 days of Bond' on tumblr and the prompt 'resurrection'.

_M looked up from some paperwork. "Q. Excellent. Sit."_

_Q warily sat in the chair she indicated -- not the one in front of her desk, but the one tucked away under an arch. She took the one opposite._

_"I've some wisdom I'd like to impart," she began. "About 007. James Bond."_

_Q blinked. "I'm..."_

_She waved her hand. "Call it some instinct left over from the field. I think of all the people here, you need to hear this." She took a deep breath. "One of the new age beliefs that have surfaced is about the sun and Yule -- the winter solstice. That is, that the Sun, a god, returns on that day. It is the day when the days get longer and we begin the march toward spring." She shook her head. "I take no stock in it, but I want you to remember it."_

_He frowned, but nodded. "Okay."_

_She looked over his shoulder, at something only she could see. "With his blond and blue eyes, James could be the sun. Some could say that in the winter, when the sun is resurrected, it is cold, like ice and snow. On first appearance, James could be just like that. But I want you to understand that he is warmer than that, like the sun is. They are warmth. Remember this, Q. He's going to forget it. Will you remember for him?"_

_He could only agree to even if he didn't quite understand why._

Q rolled his shoulders and sat back. The chair didn't dare make a squeak, but he'd have rather it had. Instead, it seemed to echo the silence that surrounded him. He looked at one of the computer screens showing the CCTV view from the public entrance of MI6. It looked out over the Thames, bordered on the left by a bridge. Dawn was stealing over the city, a golden red streaking over the river, and highlighting the softly falling snow. Unusual and completely unwelcome and yet beautiful. He didn't eagerly look forward to going home in it, but it was beautiful, especially now as it was caught up in the sun and undisturbed yet by most of the traffic.

He sighed and leaned his forehead into his hand. His branch, like most of MI6, was empty for the time being. They were run on a skeleton staff and those who were here were scattered in the building, catching a cat nap or celebrating still in their own way. In another hour or so, his team would start trickling in to actually man their stations.

It was too quiet.

_Six Months Ago_

Q grumbled when he heard his phone chime. He scrabbled for his glasses and once on, squinted through them at his phone's glaringly bright light. 

"Whatever it is, it can wait," his bed mate growled, rolling over to sling an arm around Q's waist.

"Quartermaster, remember?" Q growled back, but it lacked heat. He tried to sit up, but James' arm was a tight band, preventing any movement. 

"I need you today, not them," James said playfully. He nipped Q's ear as he slid close, pushing his knee between Q's.

Q gently pushed him away and finally managed to sit up. "It's about that mission in South Asia. Remember? The one that could make or break every infiltration we've got for that region?"

James sighed and rolled onto his back. "This is why I wanted out. Why I got out. It's always the end of the world with every single mission."

Q raised an eyebrow. "Naturally it is. If it weren't, there would be no MI6. And for someone who got out of the game, you're in the wrong country."

James glared. "What're you saying?"

Q wiggled his phone. "M's asking for you."

James' response was far more colorful than Q had ever heard from the man. He didn't even know half of what James said. 

~~~

"So how long did you hold out?" James asked as they both rode the elevator up. He was carefully watching the floor numbers light up.

Q hummed, only half paying attention. He typed out a string of code and sent it to R, for something minor about air con and getting an agent safely out, somewhere in Brazil. "Hold out?"

"When did you tell them I was back?" James clarified.

Oh. That. Q sighed and snapped close the small computer. "I didn't. Despite how you broke my heart and stole my car -- "

"My car --" James interrupted hotly.

"When I rebuilt it, it was using MI6 resources," Q pointed out. "It became one of our cars and as I am Quartermaster, I feel safe saying it was my car."

James scoffed.

Q put the computer into his bag and squared his shoulders. "Despite however you treated me --"

"And what's this about breaking your heart?" James demanded.

Q narrowed his eyes at James' reflection. "I never told them. Not once. I couldn't betray you like that. Until you gave me permission, I kept your secret."

James hummed. "Now why don't I believe that?"

The doors to the elevator opened and Moneypenny raised an eyebrow at them both. "Well, isn't this a surprise."

James grinned. "Moneypenny. Lovely to see you again."

She gave him a cool look and then turned to Q. "I'm now trying to determine, Q love, why you both arrived at the same moment. A simple text to him and he'd have shown up when he damn well pleased."

James left the elevator, ignoring the chaos he was causing. Q glared at his back. "It's a long story."

She shifted, half turning toward James. "How long?"

James kept ignoring them. Q closed his eyes and prayed for patience.

~~~

Q typed out the form detailing everything he was giving James and pushed it over to the man. "New forms. From higher up. In an effort to "stop bleeding money", we're to keep track of everything that goes out and everything that comes back." He glared over the top of his glasses. "I can't imagine why they thought we were just wasting money on supplies."

James smirked. He nodded when the Walther lit green and checked over the rest of the equipment. "I'm sure I have no idea, either."

Q swiftly took back the tablet once James had signed it and added his own signature. "You've been back in England for a month. Do you honestly think that I would have let you spend all that time on some... Some..."

James visibly didn't react, but Q could see the frustration and anger in his face, having become intimate with so many other emotions James could display. 

"Fine," Q sighed. "It appears that this is where our paths separate. If you refuse to extend trust to me, I must rescind mine."

James let out a sound that could've been a laugh if it didn't sound so dark or wasn't so short. "And trust is what makes a relationship?"

"You of all people know that," Q argued. "What is a relationship not built upon if not trust?"

James hummed. "If that's all, Quartermaster."

Q turned away. "Your flight is in an hour."

_Present_

Q minimized the security footage. He'd reviewed it so many times in the last few months. Trying to find something new. Some... A hint of something that would have salvaged things before James had left. So they wouldn't have had half conversations and confessions; they could've at least parted in peace.

Thank goodness for Tanner.

_Five Months Ago_

"Tanner's been telling tales out of school," James said casually.

Q looked up from the analysis of the surrounding area. James was in full view of a security camera of the cafe where he was, purportedly, enjoying a cup of the local roasted coffee. Q was, without shame, enjoying the view. James had a newspaper in hand, filling out a crossword; he was wearing a loose button up, had tanned well in the last month, and hadn't shaved in a few days. Q knew that he should've been giving his full attention to the analysis report or even to the store across the street where the mark was flirting terribly with one of his customers. James Bond, however, was a terrible distraction.

"What tales?" Q asked.

James took a drink of his coffee and filled out 33 down. Wrongly, but Q was still miffed and wouldn't tell him. James smirked. "I know. I just wanted to see if you'd tell me."

Q bit his lip to keep from commenting. "Tales, Bond?"

"He said Moneypenny had a theory," James explained. "He wanted to set me right. You didn't tell anyone. They knew the moment I left St. Petersburg."

Oh. Q sat back in his chair and switched them to a private line. "So? What am I supposed to do with your knowledge?"

James' eyes barely flicked up to the camera. "I wondered if we could perhaps rebuild a foundation."

Q licked his lips. "Is that all it takes? A confession? Do you think it that easy?"

"If I--"

Q saw it at the same moment. A car, blacked out windows, pulling up to the store front.

Shite.

_Present_

Q's phone chimed. He picked it up, frowning. It was Boxing Day. Everyone he knew who would text him was on vacation or with family. 

Eve. _He's a master of resurrection. He'll be back._

His head fall back and he turned his chair a few degrees left and then right. His phone chimed again.

_It's like the old myth said. On Yule, the Winter King is reborn._

He huffed.

_James Bond isn't a winter king. And I think you've got the myths mixed up. Also, shouldn't you be toasty warm in bed with Tanner?_

_I am, but we're both worried about you. For you._

_I'm at work. I'm safe as can be._

_Go home, Q. He's probably there waiting for you to really bring him back to life._

He laughed and put the phone back on his desk. He leaned forward and tapped into the audio logs for just before things went to shit.

_One Month Ago_

"Bastard," Q muttered. He typed faster than most could keep up and soon had the situation wall lit up completely. His teams looked up, everyone refocusing. Q turned to them. "Vince found our mole three months ago and tortured him. He's on to us. We need to bring home five agents. I need five teams _yesterday_."

Immediately, they all separated into familiar groupings, planned out last year. It had been meant to create harmony in the department, but worked out for situations such as these. Sometimes, they needed teams who knew each other, who had complementary strengths, in the blink of an eye. It had saved the life of three agents already. Q turned back to the situation screens. "Pick an agent everyone. Start evac now."

Q opened up channels to move between them and R was hot on his feet. They seamlessly worked together, bolstering up the teams and lending aid as needed. 

"Put me on with Q," Bond demanded during a quiet moment when they had him just at the evac site.

Quickly switching to a private channel, Q went into his office. "James?"

A laugh. "Q."

Silence except for James' breath, the quiet sounds of an Asian forest. Q waited patiently. They were no closer to a resolution now than they had been when Bond had revealed that he knew that Q hadn't turned him in. They had had conversations, half told truths and whispered wants, but nothing that might become more. They were still unsure of what to do since it had become glaringly obvious that their month together had only been sex. Q wanted more, but James wasn't sure of anything any more. The ground he walked was like quicksand for him; he'd lost so much in so few years. The home he'd thought he had was destroyed. 

"If I get home--" James started.

"When," Q whispered fiercely. "When we get you home. You will."

"Q," James sighed. "I don't know what I want except that... I keep remembering this morning we had. I think it was two weeks after I'd landed. A Sunday maybe. It felt like a Sunday should, if I could be poetic."

"You're not," Q teased, half smiling.

"I want to be," James said quietly.

"We know," Q admitted. "M said so. That there was a romantic under your hard exterior."

"Then let me talk," James growled. Q wisely kept quiet. James took a deep breath. "I remember waking up so late. The cats were at the foot of the bed. You'd been up already. There was coffee and you'd put on some music. Outside was grey and there you were, reading in bed next to me. I watched you for the longest time, wondering what to do with the serene feeling I felt building up in me. And then you smiled because you realized I was watching. It didn't matter then that the sun wasn't shining outside because I'd found sunshine in your lips."

Q closed his eyes. "James--"

A noise like thunder echoed in the branch and in Q's ear. He turned around, wondering what had happened.

_Present_

Q sat back again, leaning his head against his hand again. They had managed to save four of the five agents. All were in medical still, but on their way to a full recovery. Most of the operations for every department with skin in the game were intact; a few had been started. The after action round up had come to the same agreement: the life of one agent was worth what had been saved. Thanks to Q's department, Vince's discovery of the mole and the accidental release of intel had remained with the drug dealer. The operations their agents had been in had been scraped or salvaged, depending, with no loss for intel. All in all -- it was a solid mission that had succeeded.

If it had not been that agent, Q would have been satisfied as well. But his life had a gaping hole now in it. Moneypenny was right -- Bond likely hadn't died. But a month had passed; when was James coming home?

Would he come home?

Q wondered if James had just decided to see it as a sign that it was time to break away into the shadows, leave the world for good and make a new start for what life he had left. 

The lightest, barest touch to his fingers startled him, but only for a moment. No intruder to MI6 would be so gentle and no one here would approach him like that. He held his breath.

But there was nothing being said, either.

He touched back, fingertips dancing against another.

The hand slid over the palm of Q's, a query.

Q let out a shuddering breath and grasped the other firmly. Not just a welcome, but a please and yes and always.

"Hi," James whispered, sounding just as wrecked.

Q smiled shakily. "Moneypenny said that there was a myth about the winter king being reborn."

James hummed. "It's a Yule belief. For the northern hemisphere, the winter solstice signals the return of the sun because the days get longer after and though it is cold for a few months, the Earth will begin to warm."

Q finally turned and drank in the sight of James, home again. He was badly in need of a shower and a shave and his clothes were not his own, but he was every inch the person Q wanted to see. He smiled. "That's what it is. The sun. Warm and that which I'll happily orbit. The sun reborn. Not a winter king who is cold and unfeeling."

James smiled, face crinkling with his happiness. "No. I'll be the Winter King. You can be the Sun and Summer for the light and happiness you bring me."

Q huffed and stood. "We can argue about it when we get home."

James took a deep breath. "Home. Yes. I'd like that. Together."

Q shut down his station without looking away from James or letting go of his hand. The warmth and happiness settled more deeply into James. Q basked in it.

The last screen to shut down was the public entrance where the snow had started to glisten on the snow covered steps, five days old.


End file.
